Gratituesday: Creamy Orange Cooler

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Wow I love me a good Creamy Orange Cooler!

Over the weekend when I was nursing a sinus infection, I found myself without an appetite. But, I knew I needed to keep some good foods going in so that my body would have something to work with to fight the infection.

Something made me think of a recipe I had tried years ago (like before Asa was even born), and suddenly it sounded SO GOOD. I got out my old recipe book, made several tweaks to the concoction and guzzled it down!!! If I hadn’t been sick and out of energy, I would have done a dance around my kitchen! Maybe I had been hungrier than I thought – or maybe this was just exactly what I needed. Either way, I made another batch the next day!

Squeeze juice from the oranges and pour into a blender with remaining ingredients.

Blend until smooth (or until ice is crushed if added).

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This drink is so easy to whip up. The buttermilk mixed with the sweet citrus creates an amazingly tangy taste that is SO refreshing!

I also love that this is a new way to get down some cultured buttermilk! (Learn how easy it is to make your own buttermilk here.) I have a hard time drinking the raw, cultured buttermilk by itself, but in this mixture – I could just drink it straight from the blender!

And yes, I know dairy products aren’t great when you have a sinus infection…but I didn’t care. ;) I needed something that would go down easily and satisfy my insides. It did exactly that. (Plus I used raw milk, which doesn’t have the same ill effects on the sinuses as store-bought milk does.)

I could be mistaken – but I think the thing about no dairy when you have a sinus infection or cold doesn’t apply to good, raw milk. If I understand everything about this correctly, it has active enzymes that are so good for our bodies – especially when our immune systems need a boost. It’s the pasteurized, homogenized dead stuff that isn’t good for us – ever. I would think a cultured drink like buttermilk or kefir would be wonderful if you were fighting something!

Sounds like the Orange Julius we made recently, except with regular milk instead of butter milk. I’m not sure I could get past the thought of buttermilk! I’m enjoying your healthy eating posts….esp. with the talk about asthma. Our three boys have it and so do I. And, Diet Coke is to me (still now) as Pepsi was to you.

Sounds great to me!
Listen- you must “come to the South” where buttermilk and cornbread are a regular meal! ;-) Yep, crumble leftover cornbread into a glass and top with buttermilk and eat like you would cereal….its even better if the cornbread is still warm, was made with butter, and if it was poured in a hot skillet to bake -so the outside will be dark brown and crisp!
-Hope you’re feeling better!-

I don’t know about cornbread with buttermilk – but it’s AWESOME in a glass of cold milk … mmmm. We use bacon drippin’s (that’s how we say it in the south) in our cornbread recipe (and buttermilk). Heat up the grease in your cast iron skillet while you mix the batter and pour it in – it does make the most wonderful crispy crust. Oh. My. Goodness.

MY BLENDER BROKE and I really want to try this healthy, high-5 recipe, especially since I’ve had sinus problems for a week now! My in-laws gave me a gift certificate to buy a new blender, but I can’t decide what kind to get. Any recommendations?

I don’t know brands very well, but while I usually say “save money”…on this I’d recommend spending a little more because I always buy cheap blenders…then I use them to death in less than a year. Next time I get one, I’m spending more and getting a higher quality one that will LAST!

I finally gave in and purchased a Bledntec blender – definitely NOT
a cheap blender (about $400 at Costco – I know, yikes!). But I
cannot say enough wonderful things about it. I have a child with some
very severe (and unusual) eating issues and this blender has finally
allowed me to get veggies smooth enough that he’s fooled into thinking
that the food came from a baby food jar – and this is HUGE! He will not eat
anything he thinks is “homemade.” (long explanation, but related to
food anxieties). I can also use this blender as a juicer to make whole
food smoothies – which I’m hoping to do a LOT more of this summer.

And the best thing about purchasing it at Costco: the one year warranty
for repair becomes four – and the satisfaction-guarantee becomes for LICE-
mine, not the blenders!

This would be so yummy with the entire orange run through our Vita Mix… if only we had a cow to give us ‘fresh’ buttermilk! I’m glad God directed your thoughts to something so tasty for you!
I’m thankful for another day of sunshine and wind – they both mean green grass and dry ground =)

Ha ha melanie, that’s exactly what I just did! I followed the recipe but used whole (peeled) oranges instead of just juice, whirred it in our vitamix and it was very tasty! Thanks for the recipe Laura, I had some about-to-expire buttermilk in my fridge that I didn’t know what to do with (not raw, unfortunately…here in Maryland it’s illegal to sell raw milk products grrrr) so this was perfect!

I’ve been fiddling with trying to make a healthy creamsicle (I tried pureed mango/orange for the sides and honey flavored greek yogurt for the center – tasted great but not quite). I think I’ll try freezing this combo. Thanks!

I’ve got no website but love reading others! And I’m thankful I found this one!!! Last week I prayed for an easy way to make inexpensive, healthy mac and cheese (the homemade one I grew up with had so much cheese! and you made it in the oven.) I made some homemade english muffins over the weekend and commented on how they were like bagels. My daughter said we should try to make some bagels so I googled homemade bagels and found your website. After I read the delicious looking recipe for honey bagels, I clicked on your home page……and lo and behold… easy mac and cheese!!! I love how the Father hears our littlest prayers. Thank you Lord! And thank you Laura for sharing your life!
Momma of 5 little ones in PA

I didn’t have fresh oranges handy but I did have “Simply Pure” which is not from concentrate and no junk added. For our first time we had to have equal ratio of buttermilk to orange juice and a bit more maple syrup. But we did like it!

This is delicious. I ran out of oj so just used strawberries with some honey for sweetening and vanilla. I can’t drink plain buttermilk like so many others, but this doesn’t even taste like buttermilk. Now I’m into making my own buttermilk so I can have this often. Thanks, Laura, for all your help with your recipes and your blog.

This sounds fabulous. Has anyone tried it with soy milk? Two of my kids have severe dairy allergies, but can tolerate soy milk. I’ve soured soy milk just as you do regular milk to use in muffins, etc. Thoughts?

I haven’t heard anything good about soy milk. Unfortunately, we are terribly misinformed about the “benefits” of soy and unless it is fermented, it is not good for us. What about almond or rice milk? can your children tolerate either of those? they might be a better alternative. hope that helps!

We have to stick with soy for now…we don’t do any nuts
(testing in December, so maybe then. My daughter is allergic to
rice – also re-testing in December. I could make it for
myself with milk and just not share – that would solve the problem!
:)

Have you come across “Everything Free Eating” – a blog by a mom whose kids were allergic to absolutely everything. In addition to some pretty neat recipes, she an absolute hoot – I really enjoy her writing. You might find some helpful ideas at her blog.
And, while I’ve got you on the line … I don’t know how much you know about the benefits of raw milk – so I don’t want to go on and on about something you already know about :) But, if your children aren’t “allergic” (something about a specific antigen or something like that?) then if their gut heals enough they might be able to tolerate it one day. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you get good news in December!!

Thanks for posting about using Kefir, I was scrolling down through the comments to see if anyone had tried plain yogurt (that’s all I had on hand) I tried it and it was *wonderful* Completely exceeded my expectations! Thanks Laura!

This sounds so yummy! If I remember correctly you drink raw milk, I just recently read that it is actually beneficial during sickness and does not add to mucus production. So drink up! I’m gonna try this as soon as I can get some organic oranges! Thank you!

As a child I had really bad allergies, and when I was really bothered by them in the middle of the night I would get up and drink milk (whole, but not raw, pasteurized and homogenized) and it seem to help. Some time later when I told my mother she said that’s strange its supposed to make it worse. It never did for me. One more reason to remember God made us all similar but not the same. My was born in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and he credited milk to his survival before the moved to California. Milk was the number one item on our shopping list, we bought milk if we couldn’t afford anything else. He also talked about real whole milk when he was a kid and said “the stuff nowadays was crap” I guess he knew what he was talking about just not where to get it, without having a cow. Just thought I’d share! :D

Sounds yummy! Unforturnately for me, I can’t tolerate a lot of acidic things… so the orange juice and extract are out for me. BUT I was wondering if you could make this with strawberries instead of oranges?? I could tolerate the extract in it if oranges were out of equation. Very interested in trying this in some way cause my kids would love it, I think. Thanks!!

I was a little skeptical about how buttermilk would taste mixed with orange juice, but the answer is quite simply….grrrrreat! Once again, thanks for sharing all your delicious recipes, hard work and experience with us:)

Thank you so much for this! I’m trying to recover from a cold. I trusted you on the buttermilk and made this the other night. It was excellent! I then realized that buttermilk isn’t so different from yogurt, so it was a bit like making a smoothie with plain yogurt. I make cultured buttermilk at least once a week (just to keep it alive) and sometimes don’t know what to do with it. This was the first time I actually drank it in something and it was great! I also happen to have an orange tree so everything was really fresh.

Happend upon your site and have loved it. Thank you for creating foods that are healthy and wholesome goodness straight from the earth. I am allergic to Yeast, Msg, aspartame. i am just glad to come upon your site. thanks

I looked at your warm vanilla soother and this orange drink, but I really don’t like the maple flavor at all (rarely even have maple syrup on pancakes). I can easily substitute for the milk (although I wish I could get raw milk), but I really don’t know what to substitute for the maple syrup. Would agave syrup work as well? or do you have other ideas?

Yep, definitely can use Honey….I use it all the time and I also peel the orange, remove the seeds and cut in chunks and put the whole orange in there….haven’t tried the buttermilk tho, but will one day :)

I’ve recently started making milk kefir at home in the hopes of correcting an imbalance of gut bacteria and I tried it in this recipe – it is wonderful! I used 4 drops of vanilla-flavored liquid stevia in place of the vanilla and maple syrup. Thanks for sharing, I’m glad to find another appealing way to use my kefir as I’m starting to get plenty of it!